First trial for Greta Thunberg: she is accused in Sweden of resisting arrest

Swedish climate activist Greta Thunberg’s first trial opens today in Malmo, southern Sweden, where she will be tried for disobeying police orders during a mid-June action in which she and other activists blockaded the city’s port. She charged with “resisting arrest”. Irma Kjellstrom, spokeswoman for the environmental organization ‘Ta tillbaka framtiden’ (‘Claim the future’), confirmed to AFP that she will be present.

On June 19, the climate activist “attended a demonstration that disturbed traffic,” according to the complaint consulted by AFP. She “she She refused to obey the police order to leave the place.” That day, 20-year-old Greta Thunberg had taken part in an action alongside the organization ‘Ta tillbaka framtiden’, at the port of Malmo, where activists blocked the entrance and exit to protest against the use of fossil fuels by immobilizing vehicles and tankers.

“We have chosen not to be spectators and physically shut down the fossil fuel infrastructure. We are reclaiming the future,” Greta Thunberg said in an Instagram post. During questioning by police, Hunberg responded with a terse “no comment” to questions posed by the investigator, according to the preliminary investigation report, a copy of which AFP obtained.

The organization ‘Ta tillbaka framtiden’ remains determined to fight the fossil fuel industry. “If the court decides to consider our action (traffic disturbance) as a criminal offence, it can do so, but we know we have the right to live, and the fossil fuel industry is blocking this right,” Irma Kjellstrom of ‘Ta tillbaka framtiden’ told AFP, adding that a total of six activists from the organization will stand trial following the action at the port of Malmo. “We young people will not wait, but we will do everything possible to stop this industry that is burning our lives,” she added, claiming a form of civil disobedience.

Greta Thunberg faces a maximum sentence of six months in prison, but according to the prosecutor in charge of the case, Charlotte Ottosen, the charge in question usually results in a fine. On a Friday in August 2018, the 15-year-old and completely unknown activist sat down for the first time in front of the Swedish Parliament with her ‘School Strike for Climate’ sign. In just a few months, from Berlin to Sydney, from San Francisco to Johannesburg, young people followed her example and the Fridays for Future movement was born. In addition to her climate protests, Greta Thunberg regularly attacks politicians and governments for their inaction on climate issues.